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Red River Gorge Trip Report Nov 16,17, & 18

Well this was another great hang out. This one was attended by Cerberus, Mule (skskinner), Hooch, GrizzlyAdams, and myself. I had a GREAT time and really enjoyed meeting Grizz, Mule , and Cerberus for the first time. The weather was beautiful all weekend and the RRG was ablaze with fall colors.

We found a nice, secluded spot not far from the original campsite Doctari suggested.

Friday's daytime temps were in the upper 40's\lower 50's with the night time temps reaching 30, maybe a little below. It was cold. Saturday was a little warmer with day time temps probably in the mid to upper 50's. The thermometer said 35* when I checked it Sunday morning. The hot dog dinner on Saturday was great, and really tasty after the day hike to Gray's Arch and back.

I enjoyed seeing everyones setup. I got to see a HH Super Shelter for the first time on Mule's setup. I also got to see a bridge hammock for the first time and I got to test it out. It's a very comfortable hammock and I can see me making one in the very near future.

I also got to test out my Ticket to The Moon hammock and the new Speer Winter Tarp. The tarp performed well but with a few issues that I will address in an upcoming review. The TTM hammock was extremely comfortable and worked out better than I expected. Unfortunately many of my pics didn't come out but I will take some more when I get a chance.

I would like to thank everyone who attended and I hope you had a great time like I did. For those of you who planned to attend but could not make it, you were missed

Here is a gallery of pics. Most of these pics were thanks to Mule. There must have been condensation in my camera because most of my pics came out to blurry to recognize.

I also wanted to say a few things about the Speer SnugFit under quilt. I was glad that I was able to test the SF at it's stated temperature threshold hold of 30*. I used is with my TTM hammock which is almost exactly like an ENO, Trek Light, Bliss Hammock, etc

On Friday night the temps got down to 30*. I was wearing a thermal top and polyester T-shirt on the top, 2 light-weight thermals on the bottom, fleece hat, and I used my WM Apache as a top quilt. The SN had no problem keeping me warm at this temp. I did have a slight problem with the under quilt wanting to shift to one side during the night. All I had to do to rectify this problem was to give it a slight tug and it would slide back into position. I had never had this problem when using my DIY HH because I attached the loops on the SF to the side tie outs on the hammock effectively keeping the under quilt in place.

On Saturday I took the time to use the thin shock cord that comes with the SF. What I did was to tie a piece of shock cord to one of the side loops on the SF, take it over the ridge line of my hammock, and then tied it to a loop on the opposite side of the quilt. I used 2 pieces of shock cord, one near the foot end and one near the head end. Not only did this eliminate the shifting of the quilt to one side, but it also helped the quilt conform to the hammock much better. There was a noticeable difference in the warmth of the quilt when rigged this way. Although the temp was only 5* higher, at 35*, I had to end up shedding one layer of thermals on my legs to keep from sweating.

I am a warm sleeper but I feel that the SF is underestimated in it's rating of 30*. I don't know how low I could go before I would have to add a pad but I would estimate 20* or so. The more I use this quilt the more I love it.

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." -Terry Pratchett

Looks like some beautiful hiking weather from the pics. Who is that fallin on their butt; LOL. Wish I could say I've never fallen down trying to put on pants.

Looks like you folks had some fun, I'm jealous.

That's Hooch. He saw sitting on his hammock to take off his thermals for the day hike to Gray's Arch and somehow flipped straight back, with his feet in the air and his pants around his ankles. We were all standing right there when it happened and there was a furious scramble for a camera.

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." -Terry Pratchett